People power
Sir: Quentin Letts’s article (‘Plastic parsons’, 22 August) underlines the dire state of the Church of England today. How can the Church grow when its leaders are more and more removed from its flock?
The problem is in the way the Church is managed. When confronted with increasing costs and lower revenue, dioceses cut the number of vicars and force parishes to merge to form benefices of ten or more parishes, each overseen by one or two salaried priests.
Instead, perhaps we lay members of parishes should push back. Every diocese has many ordained clergy among its ranks. Each diocese should be required to allocate these ordained clergy to parish churches where they can continue to perform their diocesan duties as well as being a parish vicar. The administrative functions of dioceses should be merged, releasing significant cost savings in both people and buildings. It goes without saying that reparation funds would be off the table.
Perhaps then we might avoid the fate that Letts highlights, for a few more years anyway.
